Last week I did something unprecedented: social media shopping. Specifically, I succumbed to a Facebook ad. While I can’t say too much about this, on the off-chance one of the two recipients is reading, I can say I think the gifts I purchased will be a hit this Christmas.
This was new to me, but definitely not to everyone. According to a CreditCards.com survey, nearly three-fourths (72 percent) of millennials say social media affects their buying decisions. By contrast, only 45 percent of my own age group copped to this kind of impact.
Ana Staples, an analyst with Bankrate.com, says it’s pretty easy to be influenced. In fact, she recently had to put herself on a “book-buying ban” after watching too many TikTok videos about reading. Staples realized she had months’ worth of reading material already stashed.
“Not my proudest moment,” she says.
To help the rest of us avoid impulse buying – and, maybe, Internet scams – Staples offers the following tips.
Is the seller legit?: Find out more about the company before you hit “place order,” and pay attention to reviews of both the product(s) and the customer service.
Trust, but verify. You may have a favorite social media influencer who loves loves loves this particular hoodie or eyeshadow, but remember: There’s a chance they’re getting the product for free from the manufacturer – or even being paid to review the item. Instead of relying on the influencer only, Staples suggests reading reviews elsewhere.
Can I afford this right now? If buying the item might bust the budget, walk away from your phone/computer. Think about the opportunity cost of the money you want to spend, especially if it’s a bigger purchase that will mean your not being able to pay your credit card bill in full. There will always be a new Internet sensation. Pay attention to your own bottom line. That influencer isn’t paying your bills; instead, they’re paying their own bills by causing people like you to buy things.
Can it wait? As the late, great Carrie Fisher once quipped, some people think that “instant gratification takes too long.” Social media shopping is all about instant acquisition. This can hurt you in two ways: by hurting your budget (including any long-range financial goals you’ve set), and by getting you accustomed to frequent purchases (which is a fast track to the hedonic treadmill). Promise yourself you’ll revisit the purchase in a week. You may not want the item any longer – that is, if you even remember to click a second time seven days hence.
Go win some stuff
You still have time to enter my $30 Netflix gift card giveaway. The deadline is 6 p.m. PDT Wednesday, Aug. 18.
Savings.com is giving away $8,000 worth of gift cards this month. That’s not a typo. Each week, the shopping deals site will hand out eight $250 e-gift cards to Old Navy, HP, The Children’s Place and J.C. Penney. Week 3 ends today (Aug. 16), so there is still time to enter; Week 4 starts tomorrow and ends Aug. 23. Use the link above to enter, and good luck.
Student loan repayment
Attention student loan-holders: You’ve got one more reprieve coming to you. The HerMoney newsletter from Jean Chatzky recently noted that federal student loan repayments were to have resumed at the end of September, but now they’ve been pushed forward to Jan. 30, 2022.
But this is the last time it’ll happen. Seriously. The last chance to figure out your next move. Loans will resume on Feb. 1, 2022.
You’ll hear from your loan servicer before then, to set up the payments. Chatzky suggests that if you haven’t heard anything by the holidays, contact the loan servicer yourself. (Personally, I would not wait that long. A whole lot of folks are going to be piling on at the last minute to call.)
Chatzky also recommends updating your profile at studentaid.gov. If you aren’t sure you’ll be able to start paying the whole thing, research “income-based repayment” plans while you’re at studentaid.gov. They’ve got a calculator and everything.
If you haven’t signed up for the HerMoney newsletter, I recommend you give it a try. The newsletter is very topical, it’s easy to read and it tackles some women-based topics that some generalized money newsletters never touch.
Thermostat wars
As hot as it’s been in the Lower 48 this summer, it’s understandable to want to crank up the air conditioning. But that can get pretty expensive, especially if you work at home: Not only is there no eight-hour time frame during which you can keep things a little warmer, you may also be subject to peak-hour penalties. (My daughter, an at-home worker, gets chiding notices from the utility about how much juice she’s using during the day.)
Here’s why it matters: For each degree you raise the set temperature, you’ll save about 3 percent on your utility bill.
Consumer Reports recently addressed this issue. While individual comfort levels vary, here are some suggested guidelines:
First, find the temperature that suits your household’s comfort level. That’s your baseline.
Next, increase the temperature by 4 degrees overnight and by 7 degrees when no one is at home.
But here’s an alternate scenario:
- 78 degrees baseline
- 82 degrees overnight
- 85 degrees when no one’s home
A smart or programmable thermostat is a big help here.
Your mileage may vary, of course. According to a CR survey, the average temperature for central air in the United States is 71 degrees. “You can experiment with the temperature, raising it one degree at a time to see how it affects your comfort and your budget; 3 percent savings per degree adds up pretty quickly,” the article notes.
Readers: How cool (or hot) is your home these days? Got any beat-the-heat tactics to share?
RE: Thermostat
I live in a small midwestern town where we pay the municipality directly for water, sewer, electricity, etc. My home has a crawlspace. I found out that there was absolutely no insulation there, so I paid to have this done. When the workers went down, they discovered that the heating ducts were not even connected. What a mess! So I had all that work done (do not ever tell me that home inspections paid for by the buyer are worth anything).
It helped immensely. My bill for all services is now $124 a month. Yes. $124. I keep the thermostat around 76 around the clock in this hot, humid summer. This winter I put the heat on at 68 in the day and 60 at night. It’s still around $124. And it gets cold out there!
Needless to say, I am not giving the name of my town lol. My point is that there’s always a cheaper place to live. I don’t use my credit cards on line, and there’s very little shopping here. The money I save buying stuff I don’t need has afforded me many trips and much $$$ in my bank account.
Re: Thermostat
We live near Atlanta where it is hot and humid this time of year. Actually, most of the year LOL. Our upstairs AC went out a couple of weeks ago. We had it repaired and they did a patch job but told us we needed a whole new system upstairs and down for the tune of about $12000. The patch job lasted less than a week. So we turned the system off and raised the windows in our bedroom and put fans around the bed. It is not uncomfortable at all. The point is: we will most certainly have to get a more permanent solution but in the meantime we are not going to be pressed into something rashly until we have the time to get several quotes and opinions and make an informed choice and not just because 1 company told us to. Its worth the minor discomfort
That is a very wise move. Hope it cools down a bit until you’ve made your decision.
I keep my summer thermostat at 78, although I think I could live with 79-80, but DH works outside and wants it relatively cool when he comes home.
Most nights we are able to open the windows around 1:00 a.m. and let the cooler air in. This drops our internal house temperature down about 5 degrees or more. AC doesn’t kick in until the afternoon.
We also have a ceiling fan in the bedroom and one in the living room that we use constantly when in those spaces.
Personally, I would rather be too hot than too cold.
My dad had a whole-house fan that he turned on late in the evening in summer. It pulled in such cool air as was available — and, during one memorable visit, evidence that a skunk had just chased off an intruder or had been hit by a car. #GoodTimes
I am one of those people, as is my sister, who thinks that skunk smells like lemon; I find the skunk smell very appealing. I once saw an ad looking for people who did not think skunk smelled bad to be part of a study, so apparently there are a few of us. My sister and I also taste cilantro as soap…probably not connected to lemon skunk but still weird.
I’ve heard of that. Once read an article about a group of skunk aficionados who loved the fragrance and sometimes met to talk about it. To each his own.
Ceiling fans can facilitate comfort at higher thermostat settings, and sometimes entirely obviate the need for AC.
Photovoltaic (PV) systems to convert solar energy to electricity are worth investigating. In many places, AC needs are highest when PV output is also highest.
There are federal tax credits to offset purchase and installation costs, and many states also offer tax credits. With the higher standard deduction, many people are not itemizing, which makes the state tax credits worth their full face value.
Lowering PV prices, combined with tax credits, can mean PV systems will pay for themselves well before the end of their useful lives. Rising electricity costs will shorten the payback time.
Dressing appropriately can also cut AC needs. Shorts, tank tops, and no shoes can keep you comfortable with a higher thermostat setting.
That will also make for smaller laundry loads, further lowering your utility bills.
Keeping heat out of the house will reduce the amount of electricity used by AC. Some ways to do that include window tinting, awnings, and roller shades, either interior or exterior. All of these can be DIY projects.
Shading your AC units can reduce their energy use for a given amount of cooling. So can keeping your filters clean.
I’m taking a new med: an anti-psychotic, and Boy! am I hot. My husband is freezing, but the thermostat cannot go over 72 or I am miserable- and inert.
Then in the Winter, I like it cool; but my husband has to have it at least 69 or 70.
We’re probably killing the Planet. : (
We have ceiling fans in almost every room, too. We use them all year to keep the air moving.
I live not far from a wetlands, with lots of bugs and so lots of bats. The bats get into the house occasionally, even tho I’ve had it sealed up as much as possible. It’s a problem everyone here has. One night a bat flew into my bedroom, ran into the spinning ceiling fan, and WHAP, it was slammed across the room… the cats went nuts, I went hysterical! So here I am, five years later, and I’ve yet to use that fan again. Not sure I’ll ever be able to. It was wonderful though, kept the bedroom cool at night and I could turn the AC off except for the very hottest nights. I do miss it! I pay no attention to social media – not on facebook, never been to TikTok, checked out Instagram long ago before required accounts but not since that changes. I read a few blogs, that’s all (Yours is one of my favorites by the way! Great blog).
I don’t pay attention to Facebook ads, I’ve never been to TikTok, Instagram or any others out there. Because I am disabled, I shop on Amazon, putting things I need or would like to have on the appropriate lists for several weeks before deciding to buy or not.
I have a health issue that causes temperature sensitivity leaving me a very small range of temperatures that are comfortable. We keep the winter temp set at 66, and summer at 73. Neither of these is ideal for me, but are bearable. We are mostly home all the time, so do not change the settings often. This year our AC failed and we were forced to make a decision whether to use a temporary fix (with no guarantee) or buy a new unit. The unit was 23 years old, so we eventually decided to replace it. We got several quotes and took the second lowest because of their good reputation and the fact they were a locally owned company. After having the new unit installed, our electric bill went down $70.00 from the same period last year. Interested to see what difference Winter weather makes. Like others, we use ceiling fans all year long. Also in Summer we use the Air Fryer/Toaster Oven instead of heating up the range.
I am pretty bad. I keep the AC at 69 at night in my 1951 ranch house. I think if I had a newer home I could keep it higher, but I live in Phoenix and I can’t sleep when I’m too hot. I act like Godzilla if I am sleep deprived. I have a new AC but the ducts need to be replaced and more insulation added in the attic. I keep hoping that not using the heater in the winter evens things out.
If your ducts are leaking, fixing or replacing them will reduce your electric bill, especially since you keep your thermostat setting so low.
Same with adding more insulation, for your ducts as well as your attic.
My guess (emphasis on guess, I have no idea what your electric rates are like) is that doing these things will end up costing you less than what you save in electricity costs.
Check with your electric utility. They may have rebate programs to help pay for this, or other things to more efficiently cool your home.
With a regular work from home/work at the office schedule, I could see how much energy I saved by upping the thermostat before leaving the house on office days. (My energy company website has neat usage charts.) That was very motivating! My energy bill has really benefited.
Hi Donna! Your comment about student loans brought to mind a hugely helpful tip I was given regarding student financial aid. I attended a financial aid meeting at my grandson’s high school in his junior year. My husband and I have been his permanent guardians since he was in 2nd grade. I asked the presenter a question about our situation vs. parents. She said she’d talk with me after the meeting. She told me that if a student has been under the care of permanent guardians for three or more years the guardians income would not be considered on the FAFSA and the student would almost certainly qualify for at least a Pell Grant, probably more. When our grandson decided where he was going to school I told him to schedule a meeting with someone in Financial Aid and make sure they understood his situation. Bingo! Within a week he was awarded over $7000 in grants! There are so many families where someone other than a parent is raising a child, I’m telling everyone I know who is in this position.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this information! A close family member is raising his grandchild, and I will let him know.